Brazilian Paulo Ribas convicted for dealing cocaine in Sydney

A magistrate issued some stern life lessons to an out of work construction worker who turned his hand to dealing cocaine in the eastern suburbs.

Paulo Douglas Ribas, 26, of Rockdale leaves Waverley Local Court.

The paltry sum of money pocketed by a man who turned to peddling cocaine in the eastern suburbs when his construction work dried up during COVID has been revealed in court.

Paulo Douglas Ribas, 26, would only have received $150 for his role as a dial a dealer in the $600 drug supply gone wrong, Waverley Local Court heard on Tuesday.

“That is the truth and I suppose the stupidity of it … The risk as opposed to the gain was not worth it,” his lawyer said.

“He’s a hard working fella but sadly he’s not stranger to a courtroom in the short time he’s been here since 2014.”

In addition to the 1.6g of cocaine, the Brazilian national also admitted to owning vials of testosterone and an illegal steroid police found when they executed a search warrant of his Rockdale home at around the same time his ill-fated drug deal was going down in Bondi Junction according to the police fact sheet.

The renderer was handed the search warrant while he was in the police station cells but the reasons behind it being originally granted by the court were to do with his flatmates, the court heard.

Paulo Douglas Ribas leaves court.

The police fact sheet states plain clothes police watched as the rented Hyundai i30 driven by Rivas picked a woman up on Woodstock Lane, drove her around the block and dropped her back in almost the same spot at 5.15pm on June 17.

Suspecting a deal had gone down, one group of officers stopped the woman while the others tailed the car according to court documents.

The woman admitted to buying $600 worth of coke and after searching the car the officers found the bagged cocaine along with an Apple iphone in a Gucci case with the encrypted app Wickr installed, the court was told.

“Also located on the mobile phone was a photograph of a block of white powder the accused had sent to the female,” the court documents read.

Magistrate Ross Hudson convicted Ribas and sentenced him to an 18 month Community Corrections Order for his charge of supplied prohibited drug and a 12 month Community Release Order dealing with the proceeds of crime.

“Sir if it sounds too good to be true it is too good to be true. You don’t make money by virtue of the easy path,” Magistrate Hudson said.

“It really is a continuing scar on our community that there are persons out there who will continue to supply drugs and the ripple effect that can have and the devastation that can wreak on them and their family.

“You have well and truly exhausted any further leniency of this court.”